Various terms are applied to groups of people to categorize their relationships with one another. For example, “peer groups,” “tribes” and “affinity groups” are terms that are commonly used to describe groups of people that are in some way connected with one another. For communication by communication devices, users often keep contact lists, for example, in the form of telephone books stored on the communication devices. A group of particular contacts that may be stored in the telephone book memory of a communication device may be categorized in different ways. For example, particular contact entries of a database may be grouped together to form peer groups, tribes or affinity groups manually by a user of the communication device.
When two or more members of a particular group plan to be in communication or are currently in communication with one another, there may be a desire to include other members of that particular group in the communication, for example, in a conference call. Coordinating communication between some, many, most or all members of a group may be difficult. There may be a need to learn the manner in which to contact a member of the group in the future or immediately. Typically, if the other members are engaged in communication via a conference call, they may attempt to contact other members via the communication address stored in the telephone book of the device. However, the member they may be trying to contact may have their communication device turned off, or may be engaged in conversation on the device. Hence, there may be no other manner in which to contact the member of the group at that particular time.
An example of members of a group that may need immediate access to other members may be a quorum of executives of a company that is required for decision making. In the event that a quorum is required to make a decision, and not all members of that group could be contacted, for example, immediately, a difficult situation may present itself. Members of other types of groups, such as those in medicine, public service and law practices may need to make immediate contact with other group members in the event of critical situations.